


A Real Class Act

by Xelkyrien



Series: Interview With A Monster [3]
Category: Total Drama (Cartoon)
Genre: Bullies Getting Bullied, Bullying, Chemistry, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Evil Plans, F/M, Fights, First Day of School, Fist Fights, Gen, High School, Multiple Personalities, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Sabotage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:41:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22331284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xelkyrien/pseuds/Xelkyrien
Summary: It's Mal's first day in High School, but even Zoey's constant watchfulness isn't enough to keep him from stirring up a little chaos.
Relationships: Mike/Zoey (Total Drama)
Series: Interview With A Monster [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602616
Comments: 9
Kudos: 40





	A Real Class Act

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if I got anything wrong. Please keep in mind that I'm an American trying to write about a Canadian show. I don't know anything about the Canadian school system. I've only ever been to American High Schools and they were all terrible.  
> Seriously, we didn't even have real cameras.

Mal sat in homeroom with a scowl on his face as the teacher took attendance. It wasn’t the teacher that was irritating him though. Mike and Zoey shared the same homeroom. Usually they sat next to one another but today she had opted to sit directly behind him and seemed to be perfectly content to sear holes into the back of his head with her glare for the entire fifteen minutes of the class.

He put his hood up and sank down in his seat, drawing his knees up to his chest. It wasn’t the most comfortable position to be sitting in in the tiny space between the desk and its attached chair, but he didn’t really care; it telegraphed just how much he didn’t want people bothering him. That suited him just fine. Mike seemed to attract happy people to him like a lamp attracted moths, but if those cheerful moths were to flock to Mal they would be flying right into a bug zapper.

As the teacher droned on and Zoey continued to stare daggers at him Mal extracted Mike’s schedule from his notebook to get a preview of what the day had in store for him. It looked like his first real class was Chemistry; that could be interesting if they actually got to play with chemicals. Then he had Trigonometry, History and Language Arts. Boring. Afterwards it was time to break for lunch and then another round of classes with German, Home Economics, Study Hall and lastly Gym.

Mal wondered briefly how many classes he would have without his new shadow before he felt a sharp smack across the back of his head. He turned in his seat and bared his teeth at the offender, growling, “What the hell?!”

“The teacher’s been calling for the last few minutes!” Zoey replied, not missing a beat and completely unfazed by his attempt to be threatening. Mal had expected that. She had stopped being scared of him long before Season 5 had ended. In response he furrowed his brow in confusion then turned his attention towards the teacher at the front of the room, who was staring at him. In fact, everybody was staring at him.

“Mike?” the man asked again, trepidation and uncertainty clear in his voice after seeing the way Mal reacted to Zoey. At least he was scaring somebody. He doubted there was anybody in this building that didn’t know all about him from watching All Stars. He may as well play it up a little. The dark personality put on his best sinister smile and replied, “Mike’s not here, but I’ll let him know you were looking for him. If he ever comes back.”

* * *

Chemistry class began normally enough. Mal filtered into the science lab with the other students, glanced at the seating chart, then made his way over to Mike’s table at the back of the room. He looked around, trying to find some hint as to what the class would be doing that day and spotted some test tubes, beakers and a few vials filled with chemicals arranged in sets on the table near the door. It looked like they would have some kind of project to work on.

That thought made his wicked grin grow wider. Zoey wasn’t in this class with him so he could take this opportunity to cause some mischief. Of course, he was going to have to be stealthy about it to avoid getting caught since it seemed he couldn’t put Mike back in the driver’s seat after and it might help to know what exactly they were supposed to be doing first.

Both of those problems quickly solved themselves as class wore on, however. After reading the chapter in their Chemistry textbooks that vaguely related to the activity the students were given handouts detailing what the activity was meant to be along with instructions for how to complete it. As the teacher turned to the dry-erase board to copy the instructions from the paper, for those students that wouldn’t bother reading, Mal read through the entire page and put his plan into action.

With one last glance at the teacher to make sure her back was still to the class Mal slipped out of his seat and sneaked around the edge of the room to the table where the chemistry sets were sitting. Around him students were listening as their educator read what she wrote aloud, drawing in their notebooks, gossiping, fixing their makeup or taking the chance to text while nobody with any authority was looking at them. Nobody was looking at him. Nobody had noticed him yet, so Mal quickly peeled and swapped the labels on the chemical vials then returned to his seat. By the time the teacher turned to face the class again he was already pretending to read the handout.

Students were partnered up in groups of two to complete the activity. Each pair was given a single chemistry set, safety glasses, lab coats and gloves. It was required that anybody conducting experiments wear all three. Apparently all of the lab safety rules had been thoroughly drilled into the class at the beginning of the year, but since Mal had still been out cold at that time he had no idea what they were, but, to be fair, he wouldn’t care even if he did know. Rules and Safety Regulations existed purely to keep people from having fun.

He had been paired with a kid he recognized from his homeroom. The boy was about his height, but had far less muscle tone and seemed a little on edge being so close to the dark personality. He had waited for Mal to put on his safety gear, which had required he take his hood down and temporarily move his hair from over his eye to get the glasses on right, and stumbled through asking him if he was ready. Once Mal answered in the affirmative the kid got to work setting up the chemistry set. He didn’t ask for help nor did he look at Mal at all while he completed his task, so Mal left him to it.

While his partner was busy with the project he slid his books and papers into the drawer in the lab table and edged his chair away to a safe distance. With both him and his belongings out of range Mal sat back, propping his cheek on his fist, and watched the class with a malevolent grin on his face.

He didn’t have to wait long before the show started. The students soon reached the point where they had to mix their chemicals, expecting the fizzing and color change that the instructions described. Instead, thick smoke exploded out from the top of the beakers right into the faces of the teens selected to pour the chemical vials. They screeched or made noises of surprise, then dissolved into a coughing fit as they inhaled the smoke. Meanwhile their partners shrieked as the beakers began to bubble over, spilling foamy blue liquid all over the table and extinguishing the burners being used to heat the chemicals.

It was a short-lived reaction, the overflow ceasing quickly after the heat source was gone, but it had been enough to make a mess of the tables and cover the students’ books and papers in sticky blue foam. At the front of the room the teacher had been demonstrating the activity as the students went through it. Here there was a much greater impact. The chemical fluff had spread across her desk to coat her keyboard and the homework she had collected, ruining the delicate technology and likely saving a number of students from another failing grade.

Once the teacher had recovered from her coughing fit she regarded her desk with a grumble before sighing and calling for the janitor over the intercom system. Students were instructed to leave any affected items where they were and discard their safety gear into designated bins to be cleaned later. If the items were salvageable they would have them back by the end of the day.

When the bell rang Mal took his stuff from the drawer and filed out of the room with the other students, all the while whistling _In The Hall of The Mountain King_.

* * *

By lunch rumours had already begun to spread across the school about Mal. Though nobody had seen him do it and the security cameras were just for show the entire student body seemed keen to pin the blame for the chemistry fiasco on him, despite the teacher insisting on a manufacturing error. Both students and faculty alike were well aware of his bad reputation. Total Drama was televised across the country, after all, so most of them had seen him at his most diabolical. His sudden reappearance obviously meant trouble.

For his part Mal was enjoying every minute. The other students tried their best to steer clear of him, actively moving away as he approached, consequently giving him a wide berth to move through the school without concern over somebody touching him. Many of the teachers continued to act normally, but he could tell that some were uncomfortable having him in their classroom. They did their best not to make eye contact. It all made Mal smile with wicked glee, which only inspired more terror in those that were unfortunate enough to be near him. This was exactly what he lived for.

However, there were exceptions. Not everybody was as impressed by Mal as he thought they should be. Zoey was a given. Her love for Mike had overshadowed her fear of Mal and that fear had then morphed into anger. The two were too close for her to be truly frightened of any version of him. The other students were veritable strangers and some of them were smarter than others. There were a few dim bulbs among them that reminded him a lot of Scott or Alejandro, so confident that they were stronger, meaner or more cunning than he was and like Scott and Alejandro he would show them just how wrong they were in time.

Two such individuals approached him after he had left Zoey at their lunch table to toss his empty tray. If he were considering the others dim bulbs then Mal was pretty sure that these two had simply burn out a long time ago. Joe and Dallas were taller than him and bulkier, with a build not unlike Lightning. They had once been on several of the school’s sporting teams but received a permanent suspension for their over-aggressive behavior. After that the two had started taking their aggressions out on Mike, among several other students that were too soft to fight back or tell the faculty. That was a few years ago and they hadn’t let up since. From what he had read in Mike’s journal the pair had even been giving Zoey the evil eye since she arrived.

As per usual, the two walking mountains of muscle grabbed Mal by the arms and hoisted him off his feet, dragging him out into the hallway where they threw him at the wall. His shoulder collided painfully with the hard plaster and he lost his footing causing him to slip and fall to the ground. Dallas sneered down at him and spat, “You’ve got everybody scared of you now but you ain’t so tough, Mike.”

“You’re right. Mike’s never been very tough.” Mal huffed before sweeping his leg out, catching them in their ankles with as much strength as he had and knocking them off their feet. They crashed to the ground with a heavy groan as he stood up and returned Dallas’s sneer, “But I’m not Mike.”

Mal delivered a sharp kick to the side of the taller teen’s head then turned and began to make his way back to the cafeteria. Behind him he heard one of the two picking himself up and barely managed to get out of the way as the other boy lunged at him. Rather than tackling Mal, Joe found himself hitting the wall face first. He stood dazed for a moment before shaking himself then rounding on his target again. Joe came at Mal, only for the slimmer teen to trip him and send him to the ground again. While the two of them had been engaged Dallas had picked himself up and moved to take a swing at Mal, but the dark persona ducked the swing and delivered his own strong punch to the taller teen’s gut, knocking the air out of him. Predictably, he fell to the cold linoleum yet again.

Mal glanced both ways down the hall. Not seeing any teachers or staff he grabbed the two stunned bullies by fist-fulls of t-shirt and dragged them the few feet to the restroom, dropping them in a stall with their heads in the toilet. This was probably a little overkill and needlessly cruel considering that he had already knocked them on their asses, but he needed to get the point across and needless cruelty was kind of his thing. Besides, how many times in the last three years had they done the same thing to Mike? This wasn’t _just_ vengeance, it was also justice. Mike should thank him.

With that in mind, he pressed the lever to flush the toilet and then moved out of the way, leaning against the wall by the door. The two bullies endured their swirly hazily but for a moment before they came back to their senses completely. Mal laughed as he heard gurgling. Joe and Dallas swiftly pulled their heads up and struggled with each other to get as far away from the stall as possible, the two of them both trying to exit the narrow doorway at the same time. Eventually they managed, scrambling out into the main area of the restroom and gazing at Mal in utter bewilderment. He gave them the most menacing glare he could manage and commanded, “Stay away from _me_. Stay away from _Mike_. And if I catch you so much as _looking_ at Zoey I guarantee I’ll make your lives a waking nightmare.”

Mike’s bullies, having finally realized that they were in over their heads, nodded hastily in reply. They were out the door in a heartbeat.

* * *

Study Hall arrived more quickly than Mal had anticipated. Once he reached the classroom and put his books down he immediately got a restroom pass and left the class. He had no intention to go to the restroom though. Instead he used the pass so that he could freely wander the halls, looking for something to catch his interest. It wasn’t until the bell was about to ring that he returned to the classroom, retrieving his belongings and heading to the gym whistling his signature tune.

Mal met Zoey in the gymnasium after changing into Mike’s P.E. uniform, not that baggy shorts and a t-shirt in the school’s colours actually seemed like much of a uniform. The class was divided into teams and sent to opposite sides of the gym while two students rolled out a cart and set up a row of red rubber balls along the half court line. Zoey took the opportunity to look over at him. Upon seeing his grin she frowned and asked, “What did you do?”

“Oh, I just made the game a little more… interesting.” Mal shrugged, dismissing the red head’s accusation. His cryptic response only made her glare at him and ask, “How?”

“You’ll see.” No sooner had he replied than the teacher blew the whistle and each team raced to the center line to snatch up as many of the balls as they could. Zoey stuck close to him the whole time, constantly watching out of the corner of her eye to make sure he didn’t try anything shifty. It was this distraction that lead to her taking a rubber ball to the stomach with an audible “oof” and being knocked back on her rear. Mal heard her whisper “what the hell” as she regarded the object that struck her. He saw her lift it and test its weight, knowing full well that she would discover that it was far heavier than it should be.

Earlier Mal had heard students from one of the morning gym classes discussing the dodge ball games they had to play that day and complaining about how painful it was to get struck by the red rubber balls. Hearing this had irritated him. Mal had been through far worse agony and never felt the need to whine over it, so, once Study Hall had arrived he had decided to make their class’s game a little more painful to really give his peers something to complain about and, in turn, something for him to laugh at.

While he was wandering the halls he had stopped by the maintenance office and then proceeded to the vacant gym, his study hall corresponding with the physical education teacher’s free period. Mal had initially intended to fill the dodge balls with quikrete and essentially turn them into boulders, but even the quick drying concrete wouldn’t have solidified within the hour before his class began. It was designed to be used in layers, not to fill an 8 inch diameter sphere. He also had his doubts about his classmates’ abilities to lift what would have basically been a cannonball, let alone throw one. It was easy to forget that not everybody was as strong as him.

Instead, he had settled on simply filling the dodge balls with water. It would make them considerably heavier than they were filled with just air and cause them to pack a much bigger punch while still being light enough to lift and throw. He had spent the majority of his Study Hall sitting under the bleachers in the empty gymnasium with a hose connected to the locker room sink filling the few dozen dodge balls the school owned. Now, as he lobbed one of them at a classmate and watched the air get knocked out of them before they fell to the floor doubled over in pain Mal could say that it was definitely worth the effort.

* * *

Gym class ended with most of the students battered and bruised, bemoaning the various sore spots where they had been hit. Mal came away from the game without a single mark on him, the malicious grin he had been wearing since class began not faltering as he showered and changed back into his street clothes. Afterwards, Mal made his way out of the school building whistling his tune with Zoey walking beside him, throwing him a death glare and moaning over her various dodge-ball-related aches.

The two parted ways at the sidewalk, the red head moving towards her car in the parking lot while Mal approached the silver sedan idling at the end of the walkway. He pulled the door open and slid into the passenger seat, in a far better mood than he had been when the car had dropped him off that morning.

“How was your first day, kiddo?” Craig asked blithely once Mal had settled in and put his seat-belt on, a big stupid smile gracing the man’s face. For once Mal returned the man’s smile with a devilish grin of his own, replying, “It went better than I expected.”

**Author's Note:**

> At my middle school there was dodge ball every Friday. I would usually just hang out at the back of the gym and wait until a few students were on the bleachers then pretend I got out. At my first high school they did dodge ball each week too, but you could choose not to participate and it wouldn't affect your grade. At my second high school dodge ball was strictly forbidden as it was deemed too dangerous for the less athletically-inclined students, which was perfectly fine by me. Once we had a substitute at that school who had the class play dodge ball and the next day when our usual teacher was back she actually apologised to all of us for it and we never had that substitute again.  
> In other news. Mal doesn't really strike me as too much of a fighter, so for the most part I wrote him letting the bullies beat themselves up. He obviously knows how to fight, considering that he was running juvy when Duncan was there and looking at that time he beat the snot out of Izzy, but he prefers more underhanded and indirect methods of hurting people, only getting physical when he has to or to make a point.  
> Another thing of note considering the previous installment: He's fine with touching others because when he's the one initiating the touch he's in control, but he can't stand it when other people touch him.


End file.
